A study made by order fulfillment provider Shipwire shows that the international market is not just merely dominated by e-commerce giants such as eBay and Amazon. It seems that small and medium businesses may also have a substantial portion to hold in the market abroad.

According to Shipwire, international orders intended for small and medium sized merchants that do less than $ 100 million in yearly sales and use Shipwire’s services grew by about 11 percentage points from 9 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2009 in terms of total shipped orders. The report covered both US and foreign merchants. US merchants comprise 62 percent of the sample while those coming from other countries were 38 percent.

The study also found out that non-US merchants do more business in the international market than do US merchants. About 75 percent of non-US merchants were shipping orders outside of their home countries as compare to only 13 percent of US merchants. This may show that most small and medium sized merchants in the US haven’t yet tapped into opportunities in the international market unlike many non-US merchants.